The first new Blackadder material in a decade was performed last night at the
Royal Albert Hall in front of the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of
Cornwall.

Since the start of the financial crisis in 2008, bankers have come in for a lot of criticism. But perhaps they’re more cunning than the public gives them credit for. One banker, in fact, may even be as cunning as a fox who’s just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University.

Last night, an audience of more than 5,000 people at the Royal Albert Hall in London was treated to a one-off meeting with a new member of the Blackadder clan: Sir Edmund Blackadder, chief executive of a bailed-out bank.

Played by Rowan Atkinson, Sir Edmund was appearing in an exclusive new sketch for We Are Most Amused, a comedy gala night put on by the Prince of Wales’s charity, the Prince’s Trust. The event, attended by the Prince and the Duchess of Cornwall, was held to raise money for disadvantaged young people.

Written by Ben Elton, who co-wrote three of the four Blackadder TV series with Richard Curtis, the sketch was the first new Blackadder material since 2002, when Sir Osmond Darling-Blackadder (Keeper of Her Majesty’s Lawn Sprinklers) co-hosted The Jubilee Girl on BBC One to mark the Queen’s Golden Jubilee.

In the sketch, Sir Edmund was called before a parliamentary inquiry into the banking crisis. The woman chairing the inquiry was played by Miranda Hart (from Miranda and Call the Midwife), with her deputies played by Helen Lederer (Absolutely Fabulous) and Sanjeev Bhasker (The Khumars at No42).

Below is a small sample of the dialogue.

Blackadder: “The task of this inquiry is to identify those responsible and if necessary to apportion blame. To help I would like to call a witness to the inquiry. I would like to call my gardener… Mr Sodoff Baldrick.”

Enter Baldrick in grubby overalls.

Madam Chair[to Baldrick]: “I’m sorry, could you tell me your first name again?”

Baldrick: “Sodoff.”

Madam Chair: “Well, I was only asking. Your witness, Sir Edmund.”

Blackadder: “Thank you, Madam Chair. Before we begin, Baldrick, kindly assure the inquiry that you are here of your own volition.”

Baldrick: “I can’t do that, my lord.”

Blackadder: “Why not?”

Baldrick: “I don’t know what ‘volition’ means.”

Blackadder[long-sufferingly]: “Did you come here on your own initiative?”

Baldrick: “No, my lord. I came on my bike.”

Madam Chair: “Why is the witness calling you ‘my lord’, Sir Edmund?”

Blackadder: “Because I bought a peerage at the parliamentary gift shop on my way in. There’s a selection of honours for sale next to the Big Ben snow globes. So, Baldrick…”

Baldrick: “I wish to address the charwoman!”

Madam Chair: “I’m afraid she’s busy polishing the Speaker’s gavel.”

Female deputy chair: “Doesn’t Mrs Bercow normally do that?”

Madam Chair: “Yes, but not this morning. She’s got an FHM calendar shoot followed by a meeting of Attention-Seekers Anonymous with Mrs Mensch and that mad cow that went into the jungle. Don’t you follow Twitter?”